Higher Ground

This carefully crafted, satisfying novel follows Aaron Teague through the tumultuous cycles of his life: his years as an uncertain college student, his traumatic service in Vietnam and his bitter marriage. An aimless Texas boy at a fine Eastern school, Aaron deliberately allows his grades to drop and is promptly drafted and sent to Vietnam, leaving behind his socially prominent and ambitious girlfriend Deedee. Sobered by the war, grimly determined to be a success, Aaron marries clever, manipulative Deedee (now an attorney) and eventually becomes a wealthy junior partner in an architectural firm. He is smothered by life among the socially elite, however, and the marriage is a failure. The book effortlessly moves between past and present and offers a colorful gallery of supporting characters, many, like Aaron, trying to cement their broken lives. Aaron's mother and her three sisters, a verbose and combative group, firmly anchor the book with staunch morality. Oldham, a poet, renders his story of Aaron's uncompromising struggles in evocative prose. (July 6)